


Introspection

by astudyinfic



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: M/M, Malec wedding (background), Sibling Feelings, immortal husbands (if you squint), introspection (obviously)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-03
Updated: 2018-04-03
Packaged: 2019-04-18 00:52:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,507
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14201424
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/astudyinfic/pseuds/astudyinfic
Summary: While watching Magnus and Alec make their vows, Jace and Izzy think back over their lives with their older brother.  They are thankful for what Magnus has given them and to Alec.





	Introspection

**Author's Note:**

  * For [bcnedrah](https://archiveofourown.org/users/bcnedrah/gifts).



> For the prompt from the Shadowhunter Plot Bunny Adoption Center: 
> 
> Jace/Izzy introspect fic while watching Alec at his wedding to Magnus. How Alec supported them in the past and now he’s getting all of the love and attention he deserves from Magnus. And they are both so thankful for Magnus coming into Alec’s life

As Magnus and Alec met at the altar to exchange their vows, Izzy and Jace stood by, watching their formerly repressed big brother smile as bright as the sun when he saw the love of his life stand in front of him.  It was strange to see Alec like this, after so many years of frustration and anger that came off him in waves so strong they were palpable. Now he knew a peace that neither Jace nor Izzy thought was even possible before Magnus came into their lives.  They owed him so much.

Magnus' love brought their brother back to them.

* * *

 Jace thought back to when he first moved in with the Lightwoods.  He'd been angry and scared, his father brutally murdered in front of him and then he was taken from the small cabin that had been his home for as long as he could remember and placed in a massive Institute with a family he thought was guilted into taking him in.  They said he was welcome there, that he was a part of the family. His new adopted father and his biological one were parabatai, the man explained. That made Jace family, even if they'd never met him before.

It wasn't until much later that he found out why he'd never met his father's parabatai.  Or that his father wasn't actually his father. Or that his entire life before coming to live with the LIghtwoods had been a lie.

But on that very first day, Jace remembered walking into the training room, something unlike anything he'd ever been in before and saw a boy not much older than himself holding a bow and arrow.  Everything his father taught him said the boy was doing it wrong so he immediately spoke up to correct him. If anyone saw him doing it like that, he would get punished and Jace couldn’t let that happen.  However, he spoke up at the wrong time, nearly getting an arrow to the head in the process.

“Whoa!  Same side!”  He held up his hands and the other boy just glared at him.  Thinking back, he couldn’t remember a time when Alec was completely free and happy.  Even as his parabatai, Jace hadn’t realized what it was that Alec hid deep within himself.  That first day, Alec had already closed off a part of himself, a part that Jace figured no one would be able to reach.  

Until Magnus came along and there was all these new thoughts and feelings coming from Alec that Jace never felt before.  Maybe this was what the parabatai bond was supposed to be. A true sharing and not just the one-sided sensation of Alec feeling him but Jace feeling nothing in return.  Now, Jace understood what their bond was meant to be.

Thanks to Magnus.  

Magnus gave him his parabatai for the first time ever.

* * *

 Izzy’s first memory of Alec was him studying his runes.  Hodge gave him a book almost the size of Izzy herself and Alec had it on his bed, open to the deflect rune, staring at it as if it held the secrets of the universe.  Still far too young to be concerned with runes and weapons and demons, all Izzy wanted was to play with her big brother but he wouldn’t stop studying, even to play a game.  

“I can’t, Iz,” he said and even then the sadness in his voice broke her heart.  She didn’t know why her brother was sad, only that he was and she wanted to make it better.  “I have to study these. I have to know all of them so I can be the best Shadowhunter ever. If I’m the best Shadowhunter, then I can protect you.”  

He couldn’t have been more than six, his body all legs and arms, still too gangly to be considered anything but a child.  Alec didn’t even have a stele or a weapon yet, but he was determined, even back then to do whatever it took to be the best ever.  

Izzy climbed onto his lap, resting against her brother’s shoulder.  If he wasn’t going to play, then she would study with him. “What that one?” she asked, pointing to the rune on the page.

“That’s the deflect rune,” Alec explained, pride in his voice that he knew exactly what it was and could teach it to his baby sister.  “It’s supposed to keep people from being able to hit you. It deflects the blows, so you don’t get hurt.”

Izzy grinned, “So when you get it I throw things at you?”  That would be a fun game, she thought. Throwing things at her brother and watching them bounce off.  

Alec just laughed and shook his head, “I don’t know if it will work like that, Iz.  But, we can try?” His eyes went back to the page, smile fading as quickly as it came on. “I wonder if it blocks other things that hurt too?  If it deflects mean words.”  
Izzy frowned, wishing she could stop the mean words Alec must have heard.  She just wanted her brother to be happy but if people were mean, then he wouldn’t be.  

It took years before Alec walked through the Institute with his shoulders back, the words rolling off him like water, even when spat at him like insults from their own people.  That deflect rune finally seemed to work. Though, Izzy knew it had nothing to do with the rune.

It was Magnus.

Magnus gave her brother his confidence back.

* * *

 Alec was the most selfless person in the world.  Both Izzy and Jace knew that and were embarrassed at how many times they took advantage of it.  He would do anything for them, and they used it for their own gains.

How many times had Alec taken a mission for them so they could have a night off?  How many times had he covered for them when they were out instead of at the Institute where they were supposed to be?  How many times had Alec been punished, taking the blame for something he had nothing to do with?

And yet, he never complained.  Izzy wondered often if it was some sort of penance for wrongdoings, mostly imagined by his own overly-analytical mind.  Jace thought it was simply Alec’s personality. In the end, they knew they were both probably right. Alec’s very nature was to protect the people he loved, the city he lived in, and the world in general.  Sometimes that put him at odds with the things he wanted in life. And in the end, protecting others always, _always_ , **always** won.

So Alec would suffer in silence, letting his siblings live the lives they wanted.  He only ever got upset if they were doing something dangerous, and even then it was out of concern for them and not anger or spite.  

They would tease him for his lack of a social life, over the fact that he needed to get laid, or drunk, or both.  Alec rolled his eyes like he always did and changed the subject. Never once did they considered that the reason those things never happened was partly because of them.  Before Magnus, neither could name the last time Alec took a day off. Even on the days, he wasn’t scheduled to work, he was doing something.

But then Magnus came into his life and Alec started calling in favors.  Twelve years of covering for his siblings and now they were covering for him.  Jace balked a little at first, not sure why Alec’s social life was more important than his own.  The smile he saw on his brother’s face when he looked at Magnus, the warm glow through their bond when Alec returned from a date, it was enough for Jace to shut his mouth and take any mission Alec asked him to.  

Alec suddenly had a life outside the Institute, even as he took on more responsibility within it.

And it was because of Magnus.  

Magnus gave Alec the life he’d never had before.

* * *

 “Do you Alec Lightwood take Magnus Bane to be your husband in this life and the next?  Do you promise to love him with all your heart, to make time for one another, to be each other’s best friend and greatest support?”

Alec beamed at Magnus and nodded, "I do."

Jace and Izzy shared a smile, knowing they were both thinking the same thing.  

Alec needed Magnus in his life and they could guarantee that all those things Alec always did for them when they were younger, he would now do for Magnus.

But Magnus would do them for Alec, also, and for that, they would always be grateful to their newest brother.  

He gave Alec his heart, and there was no one more deserving of such a gift.  And Alec gave his in return and neither Jace nor Izzy had any doubt that Magnus would care for that heart as the most precious thing in the world, for as long as they both shall live.

 


End file.
